Warriors Barnes & Noble Meet-Up #2

Warriors fans recently gathered together for the second ever Barnes & Noble meet-up event, this time celebrating the release of Warriors Graphic Novel: The Prophecies Begin #2. From April 8th to April 13th, stores across the USA hosted their Warriors events. I was excited to see they expanded the dates the stores could host, giving fans more chances to attend! 

For the first event they did last July, I went to East Brunswick, New Jersey; this year I visited the Princeton, New Jersey Barnes & Noble location. Tentative dates and locations were provided in the Erin Hunter Instagram page bio, though calling ahead to confirm with the store was suggested.

Same as last year, each Barnes & Noble handled the event differently. I wanted to visit a different store to compare the experiences, but found that this time it was lackluster. For me, the experience was a little awkward. No other adult fans were in attendance, making me feel out of place. Even though only four or five kids came, I liked to see how many parents were supporting their pre-teens and teenagers.

Last year’s event included a costume contest, trivia, and an activity sheet. The prizes were a Warriors graphic novel tote bag and a random set of mini figures from their specialized The Prophecies Begin series. For the second event, the provided prizes were the same. With that in consideration, I decided I wouldn’t discuss the prizes like I did in my first article. They had more activity sheets this year though, with a crossword, coloring page, Warriors Mad Lib, warrior name generator, and a character guessing sheet through emojis.

Freebies

Other than the free activity sheets, the only other freebie my location provided was a different temporary tattoo sheet. This new sheet included Cinderpaw, Fireheart, Princess, Cloudkit, Fernkit, Ashkit, Yellowfang, Silverstream, Graystripe, a Warriors claw scratch, and two different borders.

We did not receive any sneak peaks into the third graphic novel unfortunately. It doesn’t appear that a printed version was available like they did for the second graphic novel, but I was under the impression they would give fans access to a digital preview instead. I know I’ll be able to get it another way, plus they’ll show previews of it on social media too, so I’m not super upset about this loss.

Trivia

With last year’s semi-tricky questions, I came into this event having studied the graphic novel and the two books it was adapted from. This proved to be the wrong strategy, however, as the first three question dealt with information from Yellowfang’s Super Edition and Dawn of the Clans. While the rest of the questions were easier, they spanned throughout The Prophecies Begin.

1. Who are Yellowfang’s litter mates?
2. Who was Yellowfang’s mentor?
3. Who was the first medicine cat of ThunderClan?
4. Who was Firestar’s first deputy?
5. In Into the Wild, who first received the prophecy of fire?
6. Who does Ravenpaw claim killed Redtail?
7. Who is Firestar’s sister?
8. Who is Cinderpelt’s mother?
9. Who was Brackenfur’s mentor?
10. What book does Silverstream first appear?

Please note that while I attempted to record these questions verbatim, some wording might be different.

I noted the frustration on the other participants faces when the first three questions were asked and how quickly they got the other seven. Even though last year’s questions were confusing, they were at least all from TPB. It felt unfair to pull information from other books when the event should’ve been focused on the graphic novel.

I’m not upset about not winning this time—I would’ve given my prize to one of the kids regardless—but I felt bad for one participant who was upset they’d never read Yellowfang’s Secret. Since only the top two winners of this store got prizes, that participant didn’t have a chance of winning against two others who got all of the questions right.

I was also intrigued to see that they did ten questions instead of last year’s fifteen. Were they expecting that to make it easier or simply didn’t come up with more?

Other Locations

After my experience at the Princeton store, I reached out to other Warriors fans on Facebook to find out how their stores handled the event. I found, to my disappointment, that other stores were more exciting. Others included a Barnes & Noble gift card as the trivia prize, with a raffle determining where the tote bag and mini figures went. Some even had cardboard masks of characters, the graphic novel, stickers, and a sweepstakes to enter as prizes.

It’d be nice if the event was streamlined across the stores (though I assume a lot of factors go into how each store handles it). It’s disheartening as a fan to find out that my experience could’ve been better if I’d gone somewhere else. Admittedly, I am happy to hear how much fun other fans had though.

I don’t know what the motivation was to do the event this way, so similar to the first and with less hype. I was hoping they’d at least have another large cutout or something exciting. Maybe it was another chance for fans to come to an event and get the prizes they missed out on before. Or since it’s only the second one, they didn’t care to put together anything new.

It wasn’t entirely a waste of time since I got to see the excitement the series still provides to children over twenty years after the first book’s release. I saw myself in their awkward and sweet hovering and socializing and couldn’t stop smiling throughout. I even talked to some of these younger fans and shared grins with their guardians.

I wish I’d asked the employee running it some questions about set up and what they get from the Warriors team, so that’ll be my goal for next time!

I’ll be curious to see whether they include any new prizes for the meet up for the third and final graphic novel adaptation of this arc. While it hasn’t been announced, it’s expected.

Check out my review of the graphic novel here.

Warriors Graphic Novel: The Prophecies Begin #2 can be purchased on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other major retailers.

Warriors Graphic Novel: The Prophecies Begin #3 can be pre-ordered on Amazon and releases September 30, 2025.